Packing arrangement for objects enclosed in a band provided with compartments



June 20, 1961 2,989,212

B0 THURESSON AF EKENSTAM ETAL PACKING ARRANGEMENT FOR OBJECTS ENCLOSED IN A BAND PROVIDED WITH COMPARTMENTS Filed Dec. 2, 1958 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 FIG. 4 FIG. 5

INVENTORS BO THURESSON AF EKENSTAM FRITZ ROLAND SVENSSON ATTORNEYS United States Patent PACKING ARRANGEMENT FOR OBJECTS EN- CLOSED IN A BAND PROVIDED WITH COM- PARTMENTS Bo Thuresson af Ekenstam, Bofors, and Fritz Roland Svensson, Karlskoga, Sweden, assignors to Kooperativa Forbnndet, Stockholm, Sweden, a Swedish trade association Filed Dec. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 777,651 Claims priority, application Sweden Dec. '4, 1957 5"Claims. (Cl. 221-) The present invention refers to a packing arrangement for objects, for instance tablets, in which the objects are each enclosed in a space after each other in the longitudinal direction of a band, and possibly in several rows located adjacent to each other, and in which the spaces consist of compartments facing one and the same direction, which compartments are formed by portions of the band folded against each other, the band then being fastened together at each compartment in such a way that casing, which passage has such a height that only one 7 compartment at a time can be inserted into it.

the space formed by the compartment will be substantially closed, and in which the band is stored in a protective casing with an opening for pulling out the band, the band inthe protective casing then being placed in such away that the end of each compartment that can be opened can be moved to a position opposite the opening after the preceding compartment has been partly or entirely opened. a

In a known packing of the above-mentioned kind, one of the edges of the protective casing is utilized as a breaking edge for the band. After the band has passed through the opening, it is then allowed to pass through a guiding device arranged on the outside of the protective casing, so that when the band is pulled it will come to bear against the breaking edge. Because of the breaking edge, when the band is pulled, the end that can be opened of the next compartment to be opened will be forced into a position opposite the opening, and when the band is pulled further, the compartment is broken up, while the end of the compartment thus bears against the opening of the protective casing, so that the enclosed object leaves the compartment through the opening. A packing of the said kind has provedto function extremely satisfactorily. However, it has been impossible to avoid that, on some occasions, objects from the compartment broken up have remained inside the protective casing instead of passing through its opening.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantage that when a compartment is broken up the object can remain inside the protective casing. According to the invention, this is eliminated by the opening having such a height that onlyone object at a time can pass through it, and by the protective casing being designed internally in such a way that when the band is pulled the compartment nearest to the opening, directly or indirectly, via the compartment following it, is guided in such a way that the object enclosed in the first-mentioned compartment is at least given a final direction of movement, which is directed only through the opening, and is made in such-a way that at the said pulling of the band it forms an obstruction for the compartment following it until the compartment in front of it has been partly or entirely broken up.

According to .a design of the present invention, two opposite outer walls of the protective casing are formed facing the transversal closures of the compartments and the transversalwall containing the opening, the distance between the two first-mentioned walls then being of-such a size and the opening being located in such a way that the said indirect guidance is obtained.

According to another design of the invention, a passage is formed, starting from the opening of the protective Through the above-mentioned procedure for breaking up a compartment, the necessity of allowing one of the edges of the opening to comprise a breaking edge for the band is eliminated. However, it can be appropriate to allow the band to change directions at one end of the opening, and thereafter be fed to some guiding device of an appropriate kind, arranged on the outside of the protective casing, in order that the end of the band which is to be grasped by a user should be properly located; The guiding device can then consist of a cramping member bearing against a surface on the protective casing. If there is no such guiding device, there is a risk that the free end of the band can slip back inside the protective casing.

Another possibility of solving the problem of pre venting the free end of the band from slipping back into the protective casing in case a passage is used is to provide a blocking device in or. at the passage, which pre: vents the band from slipping in. Such a blocking device can consist of a folding, blocking portion of the wall, which only permits a movement of the band portion in an outward direction in relation to the protective casing.

When a passage is used, the inner end of the passage should appropriately have rounded corners or bent out portions, so that a compartment is introduced into the passage without becoming damaged. 1

According to the invention, the passage can be formed by an inner wall of the protective casing and an addi-v tional wall arranged inside the protective casing, which can for instance have the form of a V or the 1ike,,in the last-mentioned case both ends of the wall, in one way or another, being joined to the wall containing the opening in the protective casing. p V

When using a passage, in order to further increase the obstructing effect for the next compartment, a device that gives way, for instance a spring, is arranged infront of the inner opening of the passage, to keep the con}- partments. away from the inner opening of the passage in a direction which is .mainly at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the passage.

The present invention will be d bed more in detail in conjunction with the attached drawing, in which FIG. 1 shows a ,design of the packing arrangement according to the present invention, in perspective and partly sectionalized, in which FIGS. 2 to 4 show schematically a part of the packing according to FIG. 1 in three different working phases, in which FIG. 5 shows schematically a part of the packing according to FIG. 1, and then provided with an additionalpart not shown in FIGQl, and

in which FIG. 6 shows anotherdesign of the packing according to the invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a parallel* epipedical protective casing with a wall 2, containing an opening 3. From the opening 3, there is a passage 4, which is formed by the inner face of a wall 5 of the protective casing and a separate wall 6 inside the protective casing. The aforementioned wall 6 is bent in such a way that it has two legs 7 and 8. The leg 8 is generally parallel to the wall 5, and the leg 7 has in general the property of retaining the wall 8 in the said position. Inside the protective casing there is a band 9 arranged, which is folded in the way shown in the figure, so that a number of compartments 10 are formed, which are arranged after one another. In the said compart ments, objects 11 are placed. Each compartment is sealed at or 'near oppositeedges of the band, and across the band at the upper end of the compartment, in such a way that each object 11 is completely enclosed. The height of the aforementioned passage has been chwen in such a way that only one compartment at a time can 3 be introduced into the passage 4, i.e. the height of the passage will be determined by the height of the object enclosed. An appropriate length of the passage 4 is a length ,equalto the length of a compartmentll).

The wall section to the wall 6, which is' lo'cated between the legs 7 and 8 should appropriately have a rounded form, so that the compartments, one at a time, are conveyed into the passage 4 without being damaged.

The functioning of the arrangement described above will now be described more in detail in conjunction with FIGS. 2-4. When the band 9 is pulled, the compartments will approach the inner opening of the passage 4, and the compartment whose turn it is will come opposite the inner opening of the passage. The next compartment will assume a position just opposite the rounded centre section of the wall 6. Due to this, when the band 9 is pulled more, the part of the-band that is located to the left of the compartment just opposite the opening in the passage will be retained at the opening of the passage, .1 1 to the fact that the next compartment has no possibility of moving further. Consequently, when the band 9 is pulled more, the compartment just opposite the opening in the passage will be opened, at the same time as the compartment is successively introduced into the passage. This is clearly shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the compartment being shown entirely open in FIG. 4.

In order to prevent the band 9 from slipping back into the protective casing after the object has left the band, it is appropriate to provide a blocking means of some appropriate kind. In FIGS. 2-4, an example of such a blocking means is shown. According to the example, the blocking means consists of a wall element 12 fastened to the wall 2 at the opening 3. The element has such properties that it allows the band to pass upwards but not downwards.

Another possibility of preventing the band from moving into the casing is to arrange a passage of an appropriate kind on the outside of the wall 5, and to allow the band 9 to pass through the said passage.

In order to further increase the retaining elfebt of a succeeding compartment, according to the design shown in FIG. 5, a blade spring 13 or the like can be arranged at the passage, which strives to press the compartments to the left.

Although a protective casing with a parallelepipedical form is shown in FIGS. 1-5, it should be obvious that the protective casing can be given any other appropriate spaces located adjabent to each other, so that at each breaking up of a compartment the number of objects corresponding to the number of spaces will be released.

What is claimed is: 1. A dispensing device for successively dispensing articles in unit form, comprising, in combination, a continuous series of article-containing pockets each defined by 1 intermittently facing surfaces of spaced folds of a pliable strip folded in accordion fashion, releasable fastening means sealing the marginal edges of adjacent folds together to define individual pockets therebetween, flattening of said strip causing opening of the folds and uncovering of the articles in the pockets, a receptacle having side walls and a top closure wall defining an interior partrnent and being disposed parallel to said side wall and along the longitudinal slot edge distant from said side wall, said depending wall member and said side wall defining within the compartment a guide channel having a length about equal to that of one of the pockets and a width more than the thickness of one pocket and less than the combined thickness of two adjacent pockets, the

form whatsoever, for instance it can have a purely cylindrical form.

In FIG. 6 there is shown a parallelepipedical protective casing 1'. The opposite side walls 14 are located at a distance that is less than the height of a compartment. Inside the protective casing, the band 9 is placed in such a way that the compartments will more or less lean towards each other, as shown by the figure. Moreover, the opening 3 is located in such a way in the wall 2' that when the band is pulled, the compartment nearest free edge of said wall member forming an abutment for the pocket next following a pocket occupying said channel, a longitudinal pull upon said protruding leading end of the strip being operative to pull open the pocket occupying the channel, the next following pocket being restrained within the compartment by abutment with said free edge whereby the article contained in the opened pocket is discharged from the receptacle through said slot.

2. A dispensing device according to claim 1 wherein the free edge of said depending wall member terminates in a rounded wall portion extending in the direction transversely to said channel for protecting a strip portion abutting against said edge.

3. A dispensing device according to claim 1 wherein a strip retaining member is secured to the outside of said top closure wall partly protruding across the width of the slot therein to impede slipping-back of the protruding leading strip edge into the compartment without blocking discharge of an uncovered article.

4. A dispensing device according to claim 1 wherein a springy member is mounted within said compartment, said springy member coacting with folded strip portions positioned adjacent to the inner end of said channel to the opening, because of the distance chosen between the r walls 14, via the succeeding compartment, is guided so that the object enclosed in the first-mentioned compartment is imparted a final direction which is only directed through theopening 3. The breaking up itself is efiected in the same way as according to FIGS. 1-5, i.e. the band portion on one side of the compartment to be broken up is retained, while the band portion on the other side of the compartment is subjected to a pull. An appropriate distance between the walls 14 should be the distance corresponding to approximately the thickness of two of the enclosed objects.

It should moreover be obvious that each compartment can be divided in such a way that there will be several urge said strip portions in a direction transversely away from said channel.

5. A dispensing device according to claim 4 wherein said springy member is securedto said side wall outside of and adjacent to the inner. end of said channel.

References Cited in-the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,208,701 Trenner 1 Dec. 12, 1916 r 1,486,562 Bemis Mar. 11, 1924 1,995,556 Zayas Mar. 26, 1935 r 2,702,145 Paulas L Feb. 15, 1955 2,758,710 Arens;; Aug. 14, 1956 2,889,958 Ekenstam et al. June 9, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 593,522 Germany Feb. 28, 1934 910,047 France Jan. 14, 1946 

